If you are in the habit of listening to your car radio, there’s a high likelihood you’ve heard a Boll & Branch ad. I can’t remember the last time I was in my car heading to our Orange County office on a Monday morning and didn’t hear a B&B ad on one of Howard Stern’s SiriusXM channels. So when I went to the IRCE show in Chicago in June, I made sure to head to the educational session featuring Scott Tannen, co-founder and CEO of the company. In the days thereafter, I reached out to Tannen’s team to see if they would have any interest in a cover feature on their performance-based marketing efforts. Very quickly, the PR liaison for the company, Dillan Arrick, was on the job. Timing was the issue, which is how many of our cover stories — this one included — take five or more months from genesis to print. Scott, his wife Missy, the company’s co-founder and president, and Dillan could not have been easier to work with. And this story is not only a great testament to performance-based metrics building a huge housewares e-retailer, it’s also a feel-good piece about a company that does things the right way. If you missed the link to the story above, here it is once again: Balancing More Than Sheets

Think of your own needs and desires when you travel. Are they more about convenience or comfort? Service or luxury? Now, multiply those by the choices of billions of others and you’ll understand the challenges travel marketers face in today’s consumer-controlled marketing world. Make promises … at your own peril. Our Nicole Urso Reed dove into the space for this feature, chatting with marketers from across the travel spectrum to find out what’s working — and what isn’t. In case you skipped the link above: Total Immersion

Another key member of our team of contributors, Bridget McCrea delved into the rapidly changing world of home shopping. With the expansion of Amazon, long-time home shopping leaders like HSN and QVC have had to nimbly adjust their business plans. And, just as they’re gaining comfort as multichannel e-retailers, along comes Amazon again — now with its own online “home shopping” programming. What’s next in the home shopping world? Here’s that story link again: The ‘Amazon-ing’ of Home Shopping

Our Doug McPherson‘s outstanding case study on the truly intriguing birth and success of the HurryCane, is not your average “bring a hot new product to market” story. From the why and the when to the how and the who, the success of this medical equipment legend took many hands. If you missed the link above, click here: How a HurryCane Forms

Our monthly direct response TV and radio media billings return to the short-form DRTV space for second-quarter 2016 results. And though those results show the least-steep decline in more than a year, short-form DRTV — at least according to how Kantar Media measures it — continues to flounder. Is it an issue of what Kantar’s measuring — to wit, are its parameters for a direct response spot too narrow in today’s performance-based marketplace? We’ve heard rumblings from readers about this, and we’re not wholly unconvinced. For a full look at 2Q 2016 short-form DRTV media billings, click here: Short-Form DRTV Media Billings Continue to Fade

Finally, in my Editor’s Note column, I ask marketers and other leaders in our space to look ahead — at 2017 and beyond — after spending months spellbound by the most memorable and most embarrassing election cycle in modern U.S. history. We, as an industry, have plenty of challenges — and opportunities — to focus upon in the coming months and years. Let’s get to them! If you missed the link above, here it is: Now That That’s Over …

I first met Igor Credali, New York-based e-commerce leader of Kiko Milano’s U.S. expansion efforts, at the eTail West event in Palm Desert, Calif., about six months ago. I’d received outreach from digital partner Linc for a meeting at the event, and during that meeting, the Linc team introduced me to Credali as one of its “star” clients. The story about Linc’s efforts to help Kiko build its brand in the U.S. — a brand that is extremely well known and regarded throughout Europe — was intriguing. When I returned to the office and started digging deeper on Kiko’s work in the U.S. — it’s online marketing efforts and rapid ascension in brick-and-mortar retail — I knew this was a story we wanted to tell. Fortunately, the crew at Linc and Credali himself were up for the idea. If you missed it above, here’s the link: A Beautiful Expansion

Another annual staple, our feature on the latest trends for financial services marketers takes a deeper look at the different variations of media — style, content, length, and more — that marketers in the banking, insurance, and finance worlds are using to reach consumers. For years now, financial services marketers have been pathfinders, leading the way for other verticals in showing how offline and online media can converge to drive response from consumers. That’s still true today. What are they up to now? If you missed the link above, click here to check out the story: The Dollars and Cents of Performance-Based Marketing

An interesting partnership between skin-care marketer Radiancy and leading e-commerce websites is at the heart of a feature that shines a spotlight on the ongoing problem of counterfeit products. At our DRMA Winter Bash last December in New York, I met Jaimee Given, Radiancy’s marketing manager, who shared openly about the struggles the company was facing with counterfeit versions of its popular no! no! product — especially on websites like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba. She was working hard at solving the issue and had enlisted leaders from those e-retailers and more for help. The story you see in this issue talks about the incredible results Given and Co. have authored — as well as discussing the landscape going forward. Our Doug McPherson has the story: Beating the Bad Guys

The concepts behind processing consumer payments seem to be changing as quickly, at the least, as the outlets where consumers can buy marketers’ products and services. Along with growing e-commerce — and, perhaps more strikingly, m-commerce (mobile commerce) — marketers must continue to address customer concerns about security and privacy. And with new EMV chip cards becoming the norm, online fraud has become even more prevalent. What does it all mean? We asked a trio of payment processing experts about these items and more. Here’s what they had to say: Pay Day

Our monthly direct response TV and radio media billings return to the short-form DRTV space for first-quarter 2016 results. Once again — and hopefully for the fourth and final time since they were announced — Kantar Media’s changes to its Hispanic media measurements affect its reported results. Another slide — more than 25 percent — left short-form DR results at what we hope is a new 1Q baseline: $622.4 million. For a full look at 1Q 2016 short-form DRTV media billings, click here: No New Tale to Tell for Short-Form DRTV

The cover story on Touch of Modern has its roots in a meeting during the eTail West trade show in Palm Desert, Calif., in late February. There, I connected with the company’s PR lead, Ashley Cummings, and one of its four founders, Jonathan Wu. Immediately intrigued by the 4-year old company’s focus on the online male shopping market and the back story of its four co-founders, I worked with Cummings to bring the company’s VP of marketing, Matt Gehring, to April’s Response Expo as a speaker. At the same time, Cummings was quick to jump on the opportunity when my original May cover story fell through, getting me on the phone quickly with not only Gehring, but two of the other co-founders, Jerry Hum and Dennis Liu. The resulting story touches on some of the most cutting-edge performance-based marketing tactics — and powerful results — that we’ve discussed in Response. If you missed it above, here’s the link: A Modern Flash

During the past 18 months, our coverage of the business solutions space has mirrored its ascent as a key group utilizing performance-based marketing — recall our cover features on such leaders as Vistaprint, Wix, Boingo Wireless, and Square. This month, freelancer Doug McPherson takes a look at the wider space and how it is reaching and servicing small businesses and consumers alike. Using online and offline media — and relying heavily on the data those interactions drive — business solutions marketers like Weebly and Pagemodo are carving out big time success. If you missed the link above but want to check out the story, click here: A Wiz at Biz

The spring edition of our ongoing media buying & planning guide feature usually includes thoughts from leaders on the network and MVPD side of the business. And it also includes our annual Cable Network Directory, which shares demographic and contact information from major national TV media outlets with our readers. This issue’s edition is no different. The feature story focuses heavily on changing how changing TV technology, as well as the ongoing presidential campaign, is affecting the media landscape. Meanwhile, this year’s Directory is our biggest ever — nearly 140 outlets are included. If you missed them above, here are links to the feature and to the directory:

This month’s Field Reports section is notable for its look back at April’s Response Expo. From the opening keynote by famed World Trade Center wire walker Philippe Petit to the closing night soiree at SeaWorld San Diego, we were thrilled to host more than 3,000 performance-based marketers once again for networking, education, and a lot of fun. (Also, don’t miss a chance to look back in the Expo in photos: a 2-page spread on the event makes up this month’s “But Wait, There’s More” section). While I do love holding that printed issue of Response in my hand at the end of each month, when it comes to job satisfaction, there’s nothing like the rush of receiving the personal thanks and congratulations we’ve been lucky to earn through these first 10 Expos. We look forward to returning to San Diego with everyone next April. If you missed the link to the news wrap above, here it is once again: Field Reports May 2016

Our monthly direct response TV and radio media billings return to the short-form DRTV space for fourth-quarter 2015 results. And — like many of you, I presume, when it comes to this market — I’m ready to kiss 2015 goodbye. Kantar Media‘s shift in measuring the Hispanic media space — and the major reduction in estimated Hispanic media spending it engendered — was the overwhelming reason that the year’s results for the short-form space showed a 26.3-percent decrease. In fact, more than $3 of every $4 lost in 2015 was attributed to a major rollback in Hispanic media spending. For a full look at 4Q 2015 short-form DRTV media billings, click here: Kantar Measurement Shifts Push 2015 Short-Form DR Billings Off a Cliff

Finally, when I wrote my Editor’s Note piece for this issue, I was in a rather bad mood. Fortunately, aside from a single line referring cryptically to the reason for that mood in the story’s next-to-last paragraph, I was able to turn that negative feeling into a positive look at how partnerships can be a wonderful driving force in both our business and personal lives. If you’ve read this piece before reading this post, let me know if you had any idea that I actually was incredibly angry right before writing this column. I’d love to hear about it. If you missed the link above, click here to check it out: The Power of Partnership